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New car sales to hit 15,3 mln units in U.S. in 2013

New car sales in United States are expected to hit 15.3 million units, an increase of 6.6 percent compared to 2012, when about 14.5 million new vehicles were sold, R.L. Polk & Co reports.

If the estimations are correct, 2013 would be the first year of non-double digit sales growth since 2008. Even so, 2013 looks very bright unless auto sales fall off the fiscal cliff.

“I clearly hope we get some bipartisan effort to avoid the fiscal cliff,” said Ford Motor Co. Chairman Bill Ford Jr.
“It’s vitally important for the economy that we work this out.”

“There’s going to be growth, but some demand has been satisfied at this point,” said Anthony Pratt, Polk’s director of forecasting for the Americas. “The spigot has been on, but it hasn’t been on at full blast.”

Polk reports that demand for large pickup trucks – an important part of total auto sales in US, will be particularly high in 2013, mostly because GM and Ford, have renewed their offers with new models that come with new technologies and low fuel composition. Overall, more than 40 new vehicles are expected to hit the U.S. market in 2013, more than twice as many as in 2012.

Official deliveries for new vehicles – trucks and cars in December are due to be reported tomorrow, and according to the estimates made by Bloomberg, most probably, climbed to 1.36 million. However interesting is that Consumer confidence index in the United States fell last month to a four-month low, from 71.5 in November to 65.1.
“Consumers’ expectations retreated sharply in December resulting in a decline in the overall index,” Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center, said in a statement.

It remains to be seen if 2013 would be a better year overall or not, but for the moment expectations are high.

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